The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. This month's key North American steel forecast highlights: US hot-rolled coil prices continued to move in line with our forecasts in February, although actual prices again modestly exceeded our forecasts. Domestic HRC prices averaged $1,194 per ton in February, exceeding our forecast price of $1,150 per ton for the month. U...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Europe on Friday April 16.Key drivers Market participants report lower offers all under $1,000 per kg for prompt delivery material on spot basis. Most germanium-dioxide material is tied up in long-term contracts on a formula basis, however, material rarely exchanges hands in...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe increased further on Monday April 19 after ArcelorMittal announced an increase in its offer prices last week, sources told Fastmarkets.The mood in the market is bullish, and buyers are expected to accept even higher prices soon.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?941.67 ($1,128.10) per tonne...Read More
Chinese alumina refinery Kaiman (Sanmenxia) Aluminium has cut its production by half because of a shortage of bauxite supplies, market sources told Fastmarkets on Monday April 19.Hangzhou Jinjiang Group owns the refinery in Sanmenxia city in Henan province, which has capacity for 2.1 million tonnes per year. It will reduce output for at least one month starting from Monday, but could extend the cu...Read More
Several major Chinese metal producers bought zinc and gold concentrates produced in North Korea in 2019, despite economic sanctions, a court ruling has revealed.Thirteen men were convicted of smuggling metal raw materials across the closed China-North Korea border, according to a ruling by the Jiangsu Yangcheng Intermediate Court on Wednesday March 31, resulting from the lawsuit (2021) Jiangsu 09...Read More
It seems that copper's biggest market has soured on the metal. Premiums paid over exchange prices for copper cathodes imported into China have fallen in recent weeks, dropping to a five-month low in a decline that shows no signs of slowing down.Fastmarkets' benchmark copper grade-A cathode ER premium, cif Shanghai was at $40-48 per tonne on Wednesday April 14, a five-month low.Falling premiums for...Read More
Korea Zinc has agreed annual supply contracts for lead concentrate from South32's Cannington mine in Australia with a 21.92% reduction in treatment charge (TC) terms from a year ago. The two companies agreed to a TC of $142.50 per tonne and refining charge (RC) of $1.50 per oz, down from $182.50 per tonne / $1.50 per oz, sources claiming direct knowledge said. The deal was locked as per contract w...Read More
Copper's London Metal Exchange three-month price continued on the upside with a rise to $9,415 per tonne on the morning of Monday April 19, while tin's price was also up 1.6% and nickel's futures undid its Friday gains. The copper price rose by 2.2% gain on Monday morning from $9,211 per tonne at 5pm on Friday, which itself was a 3.9% gain from last Monday's closing price of $8,861 per tonne. Ope...Read More
Nickel briquette has steadily become a more favored choice of feedstock for Chinese battery-grade nickel sulfate producers in recent months, resulting in a notable pick-up in spot trading activity for the former.But recent declines in the Chinese nickel sulfate price have raised questions among market participants about whether this trend will continue. Fastmarkets examines the major factors behin...Read More
Prices for cold-heading quality (CHQ) and high-carbon wire rod in the United States rose for the second consecutive month, while mills extended lead times due to higher demand. Fastmarkets' monthly assessment for steel wire rod (high carbon), fob mill US was $52.50 per hundredweight ($1,050 per short ton) on Friday April 16, up 5% from $50 per cwt in March, and up $4.75 per cwt (9.95%) f...Read More
Special bar quality (SBQ) steel prices for both hot-rolled and cold-finished products soared in the United States in April due to rising demand, mill base price increases and higher raw material costs. Fastmarkets' assessment for hot-rolled special bar quality 1-inch round 1000 series (carbon), fob mill US was at $57.50 per hundredweight ($1,150 per short ton) on Friday April 16, up by 12.75% from...Read More
Liberty Steel's management has promised Ostrava steelworks in Czech Republic will retain its carbon emissions allowances, addressing trade union's fears they will be lent to another mill, Fastmarkets has learned. On Wednesday April 14, OS KOVO trade union warned of a readiness to strike at Liberty's Ostrava plant amid concerns stemming from market chatter and international media that implied...Read More
United Arab Emirates-based rebar producers Emirates Steel and Conares Steel have rolled over their rebar prices, effective from Friday April 16.The country's largest producer, Emirates Steel, is offering rebar at 2,535 dirhams ($690) per tonne ex-works, unchanged since February 24.Conares Steel is offering rebar at 2,530 dirhams...Read More
Ongoing growth in finished flat-steel products prices, both domestically and in the main customers' markets, spurred slab producers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to increase offers again, sources said.Turkish producers - one of the main buyers of CIS slab - sold hot-rolled coil (HRC) at $1,020-1,030 per tonne fob to North Africa and at $1,020-1,050 per tonne fob to the United Sta...Read More
Fastmarkets has corrected its weekly steel slab export, fob Black Sea, CIS assessment, which was published incorrectly on Monday April 19 due to a reporter error. The steel slab export, fob Black Sea, CIS (MB-STE-0016) price should have been $850-870 per tonne instead of $860-870 per tonne as published initially. This has now been corrected in Fastmarkets' pricing database, MinD. For more inf...Read More
Brazilian steel and iron ore producer Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) was able to continue to operate normally at its coal and container terminals at the port of Itagua?- over the weekend despite an order from local authorities to suspend its activities.The closures at Itagua?- port, in Brazil's southeastern Rio de Janeiro state, were ordered by the city authorities but CSN was able to ensur...Read More